I’ve recently acquired a new roommate, who, among other things, has been saddled with a frequent routine.

It starts with a scream, a string of obscenities, and the thumping sound of me awkwardly sprinting across the hardwood floors. He sighs and calls out, “Where is it?”

“It” is a spider, and no matter the size, I view them as the enemy. He tirelessly rids our home of them and indulges my pleas to flush the slain foe as insurance that it won’t, in my words,  “come back to life and kill us in the night.”

After recently reading another local blog, however, I felt contrite: Cheap Like Me had discovered natural ways to prevent bugs from entering (or staying in) the house.

Author Susanna Donato also explains how good spiders are for our homes, referencing the ever guilt-inducing Charlotte’s Web.

While I deal with spider remorse, I recommend spending some time perusing Cheap Like Me, the tagline of which is “where economy and ecology meet the good life,” for interesting recipes and money-saving tips.